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Originally Posted by Steely Dan
sure, back then just as today, toronto had gobs of 20-something story rental buildings spread ALL across the city and even into the burbs, a fairly uncommon typology in most US cities, but outside of the CN tower, nobody really considered toronto to have one of the tallest/largest skylines of north america, certainly nowhere near top 3.
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Using Emporis standards, Toronto has probably been a top 3 NA city for highrises since the 1970's.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Steely Dan
and now? it's crossed the century mark on the 500 footer measure and SOLIDLY positioned itself as the #3 tallest/largest skyline in north america, and if the current pace holds, toronto will be surpassing chicago on that score within the next decade. it won't catch NYC for a long time, if ever, but the fact that toronto is now on the hunt for #2 is a really big deal.
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Most Toronto highrises are outside the core, while almost all Chicago highrises are within the core. So it isn't accurate to conclude that (if you standard for best skyline is strictly based on "N of 500 ft+ towers") Toronto will have the #2 skyline.
And any such ranking would have to weight towers different, so that an iconic supertall isn't counted the same as a 500 ft. condobox. I mean, would anyone argue the ESB should be weighted the same as those 500 ft. towers in Fort Lee, NJ?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Steely Dan
as for the immigration/china/trump/population growth theorizing, i'd like to remind everyone that stagnant chicago has built 50 new 500+ footers over the past two decades with very little in the way of population growth, international immigration, chinese money, etc. those things are not prerequisites for a city to under-go a large skyscraper building boom. sometimes it can be as simple as suburban wealth re-concentrating in the center.
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But Toronto has a growth boundary and strict limits on SFH. So when the region grows, it leads to highrise, or at least multifamily, growth. Most NA cities have no such restrictions, so the relationship between growth and highrises is weak at best.